Controller attracted by services

Aimee Sandy is the new controller for ProAct, filling a post that was held by Pat McGuire for 27 years. He retired in April.

She was attracted to ProAct by its services for those with disabilities. Sandy lives with a mild case of cerebral palsy.

Sandy was previously an accounting director for Lutheran Social Services, where she handled financial statements for the board of directors and prepared for fiscal audits and filings. Before LSS, she was the financial manager for Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties, where she prepared monthly financials and had payroll responsibilities. In addition, Sandy has experience with Target Corporation and Ernst & Young, LLC.

As a finance professional, she is focused on the future for Minnesota nonprofits. Sandy said it is prudent for organizations like ProAct to develop additional funding sources to prepare for possible interruptions in government funding.

The new controller was raised in the east-central small town of Mora, Minn. where her family joined the festivities for the annual Vasaloppet Cross-Country Ski Race. She was honored to help hand out medals to the competitors.

Sandy attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, earning Bachelor of Arts degrees in accounting and political science. Finance and accounting careers abound in the Sandy family. Her grandmother is a bookkeeper and her father taught high school accounting classes. Her brother, who owns an accounting firm, teaches accounting at a community college.

Outside of the rigors of numbers, Sandy is an avid reader who devoured 164 books in 2018 alone. She is most interested in history and U.S. presidents, and recommends the Ken Burns 2014 television mini-series on the Roosevelt family.

This passion was sparked after writing an essay that won her a free trip from the National Rural Electric Cooperative. Annually, the group brings 1,500 teens from across the country to Washington D.C. to tour monuments, visit the Smithsonian and meet congressional representatives.

Adding to her wide array of interests, Sandy is also a crafter and scrapbooker, but admits that she does not have green thumb. Do not worry about the plastic plant in her office, she says. It will never die.